Chapter 267: Dark Egnious

"The what?" Ned asked in surprise.

"You don't think much about me do you?" Rassus said. "The Prime Evolution, Ned! Prime. Evolution."

These things were graded between E and D. While Ned Devour them, unknown to him, he was fulfilling the Prime Evolution skill Rassus have. And so, in less than twenty minutes of his Devouring, he finally attained half of the Cores Rassus needed for the Prime Evolution skill to evolve.

"Well," Rassus said. "You needed 300 more Core to evolve. By then, I'll show you what I can do with them."

Ned wasn't eager to know if what would he become if he evolved Prime Evolution. For now, they must leave this place. So he leaped and bolted forward, spinning midair while slashing the beast around him. A dozen fell upon his landing, not enough with the result, he dashed and trampled the bodies on his path. Around him was a tiny hill of dead bodies, but without Devour it could be a mountain.

He skidded a body and rolled and conjured Fireball. But it wasn't just his usual Fireball. A Fireball of black, and red, and orange clamped together. Leaving his hand, he felt nothing, no recoil, no fatigue, no heat.

Boom roared to his right, and bodies were thrown away from the spell.

Ned smiled and thought of something.

Kruthiks backed away from Ned seeing how he used magic and killed dozens with it. But with a roar from S'vokalt from the crater, the Kruthiks shook their heads. Then their eyes turned red, some were pale blue and orange. The red ones were the ones with long spikes, and reddish scales, and scorpion-like tails. While the blue ones were thin as though made to be a worker. And the orange ones were normal Kruthiks. But to Ned, well, and to Rassus, they all looked the same. Food.

With a thought in mind, Ned wanted to use the spell he developed, Egnious.

While his right half-broken Butterfly and blocked the spikes, his left was conjuring Egnious. Speed, strength, and amount, all these had exceeded Ned's expectation. The Egnious formed an orb the size of a normal human's head, then it gets bigger, and bigger until the reddish orb turned black. Darker than a shadow, darker than death itself, Egnious with Rassus's powers.

"See that?" Rassus roared. "That's what you get if you accept my powers, Ned!"

Ned hissed.

But too much from scolding. From his spot, Ned vanished, and with the help of the dead bodies that piled up, he leaped upward, making sure to hit the spot where there was a vast amount of the beast, and far from Katolin.

With his hand raised upward, Ned grunted and threw the Egnious to the bottom.

At first, it hovered slow, but as it gains momentum, the dark orb hummed as it approached the ground.

Then, the dark orb split into half, and the half split into another half until the split orbs transformed to almost a wee of an orb. Then they scattered at the base of the tower.

"You idiot! What did you do?" Ned snarled. "Katolin is there!

Rassus laughed that it ringed inside Ned's head.

"I altered Egnious a bit," Rassus said. "To complement the surrounding. You don't like fireworks? Ahh, for the beast? She can handle it."

Then the ground where the orbs scattered cracked, along with the hundreds, of both the dead and alive Kruthiks. The orb absorbs them like a black hole. Be it limbs, or rocks, or dust, everything that these tiny orbs touches gone to nothingness.

Ned landed even before the effects of the Egnious hasn't finished yet. Across him, to where Katolin and the Evolved fought were the tiny orbs devouring everything except for her.

"What can I say?" Rassus said voice hinted of mockery. "She's your other girl? Right? Preserves the kin."

"When will you stop talking nonsense?"

"Surprised I know?"

Ned didn't answer, instead, he dashed, the hundreds of orbs were like living beings and moved away from Ned as soon as he gets closer to them. Some of the ones were floating just a foot away from the ground, they were looking for their next target.

Ned appeared beside Katolin, while the Evolved Kruthik stood there, in front of them, mesmerized by the scene that happened around him.

As the tiny orbs kept on sucking the army. The remaining orbs that float started to jerk and hovered toward the Evolved Kruthik. One-by-one, they started to stick to the beast's rock-like-scale.

"Oh," Rassus said as though raising a finger to prove a point or inform an idea. "I also made the orbs homing. You can try it, Ned. Focus and think of those orbs as one of your girls. Perhaps it would be easy that way."

Ned raised a lip and tsked. Curious, he tried to focus on the orbs, and to his surprise, it moved with his command. They started to float mid-air and hovered above the Evolved Kruthiks head like a halo, but dark.

The Evolved Kruthik shook its body trying to throw off the tiny orbs that were stuck to its scales, it did nothing. And so his eyes went red, enraged, and seeing that the one controlling the orbs was Ned, he charged toward him.

"Ned," Katolin said under her breath. She was already at her limit. "You sure you can take it?"

"One way to find out," Ned replied. And with a thought, and focus, the orbs that were sticking to his scales exploded. Then its effect continued, they then absorb the scales of the Evolved Kruthik. One by one, its scales were looking like a dry land exploded with bombs, holes surrounding its body.

Before it could reach Ned and Katolin, it fell to the ground with its head ramming the rocks, and dust, and some limbs of the dead Kruthiks.

Then the halo of dark orbs revolved then stuck them to the head of the downed Evolved Kruthik. Ned commanded the orbs then they sucked its scales.

But using too much of Rassus power has a limit, before the orbs completely suck and kill the beast, they disappeared, like a bubble pierced by a needle, they popped.

"Eh?" Rassus's voice shook. "What happened?"

Ned readies his dark broken Butterfly, behind him was Katolin mesmerized by Ned's power.

"Nah, nevermind," Rassus revoked his thoughts. "You reached your limit. Damn! I should have urged you to Devour than use a spell."

Although Ned couldn't feel it, his body has reached its limit, as well as the energy Rassus was giving.

"You should Devour, I have some energy left for that."

Ned hissed then tsked, if he doesn't Devour the remaining Kruthiks then they might lose the fight.

"So even the great Rassus has its limit."

"You shut up Half-human!" Rassus's demanded. "It's because you're weak that it turned out like these. How could I give you powers if you're too weak to receive it." Rassus voice lowered as if he gave up arguing with Ned.

Then the Evolved Kruthik jerked its head and stood with its eyes red enraged. It pushed itself to ram its head to Ned.

Ned's eyes caught the light on his right.

Katolin, with the last of her mana, conjured lightning and swiftly rounded Ned and ran toward the Evolved one. She then rams the orb of lightning on the beast's face. Completely burning it.

The beast let out a defeated growl and stopped moving as Katolin fell with her knees, devoid of any strength. Yet smiling, and satisfied.